It appears this word has left the English language. From the context of the book I am reading about espionage during WWI in the United States, it refers to stevedores. German agents used Irish chenangoes to plant bombs in Allied cargo ships.

I discovered it in this book: Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum.And no, this is not a submission to "Books That Should be Written."